Trailer
Plot summary
When his friend Professor Kingsley is at deaths door, brain surgeon Dr. Sovac saves his life by means of an illegal operation that transplants part of injured gangster Red Cannon's brain. Unfortunately, the operation has a disastrous Jeckll and Hyde side effect and under certain conditions the persona of Cannon emerges. Sovac soon learns of the duel personality and of half a million dollars the gangster has hidden away. He attempts to find the money through the manipulation of his friend, an attempt that brings Kingsley closer to madness as he alternates between a meek professor of English and a brutal gangster out for murderous revenge on those who tried to kill him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Friday (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Universal cast Bela Lugosi as the doctor and Boris Karloff as the professor, but Karloff insisted on playing the doctor. Rather than a straight switch, Lugosi was handed the minor role of another gangster and character actor Stanley Ridges was brought in as the professor.
- Although the film was sold on the strength of both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, the two horror stars never share a single scene together anywhere in it.
- One odd production story has it that during filming a man named Manley Hall reportedly hypnotised Bela Lugosi on the set.
